Nagaur
Nagaur, 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Head-quarters of a district of the same name in the State of Jodhpur, Rajputana, situated in 27degree 12' N. and 73° 44' E., on the Jodhpur-Blkaner Railway. Population (1901), 13,377. The town possesses a post office, an Anglo-vernacular school, and a hospital. The principal manufactures are brass and iron utensils, ivory toys, camel saddles, and cotton cloth. The town is said to take its name from its traditional founders, the Naga Rajputs, and was held succes- sively by PrithwT Raj Chauhan, Muhammad Ghori, and the chiefs of Jodhpur, save for a time when it was possessed by the Bikaner chief by grant from Akbar, and by another Rathor family by grant from Shah Jahan. The town wall is more than 4 miles in length, between 2\ and 5 feet thick, and on the average 17 feet high. The battlements bear many Arabic and Persian inscriptions, obtained from mosques demolished by Maharaja Bakht Singh in order to repair breaches caused in warfare. Of the numerous religious edifices, two Hindu temples and a five-domed mosque are especially noteworthy. The fort, rising above the town, has a double wall nearly a mile long, the outer being 25 feet and the inner 50 feet above the ground, with a thickness of more than 30 feet at the base and about 12 feet at the top. The principal objects of interest in the fort are some palaces, a fountain with seventeen jets (dating from Akbar's reign), a mosque erected by Shah Jahan, and a cave claimed by both Hindus and Musalmans as a place of retreat for their former saints. The Nagaur district fur- nishes a fine breed of bullocks, famous throughout Northern India. The village of Manglod (20 miles east of Nagaur town) has a very old temple with a Sanskrit inscription dated a.d. 604, which records its repair during the reign of a king Dhuhlana. This is the oldest inscription yet discovered in Jodhpur.
